Today's theme is God's love and caring for our well-being.
Once more we are offered God's Peace this time in Luke and in Psalms. The Hebrew word is Shalom which is freighted with far deeper meaning than our simple concept of peace. It encompasses outward and inward freedom from disturbance, well-being in general including health and prosperity, and a sense of right relationship with man and God. All this from a single word.
Our first lesson from Acts quotes events that occurred after the coming of the Holy Spirit--Pentecost. Imbued with the Holy Spirit these illiterate fishermen were empowered to overcome stage freight and fear of the authorities to speak powerfully and charismatically to thousands. Seemingly people from many nations understood them in their own tongue--as has been asserted before in an opposite effect from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. The Holy Ghost or Spirit has also been termed the Comforter for it gives the gift of faith that empowers a sense of Shalom in the believer.
Psalm 4 asserts that those who are faithful to the Lord will lie down in perfect peace. The idea that one should resist worldly injustice but be aware that we are not personally responsible for saving the entire world is made plain.
The Epistle tells us that our lives should reflect the love that was given us and in so doing reflect he from whom it was given.
So we come to Luke and another passage in which the Resurrected Jesus appears to his gathered followers.
How to persuade a group of rather simple literal-minded peasant fishermen that he really is present among them? He invokes the most elemental of human needs and asks for food. He could have gone for a whizz but there were women present.
The important stuff comes next.
Luk 24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
First he has to put their minds at ease so they can be receptive to the message that follows. Opening their minds is an act of the Holy Spirit. It hardly seems plausible that Jesus reviewed the entire Old Testament and his Gospel in one session but having convinced the gathering of his resurrection he freed their minds to move on.
Luk 24:48 You are witnesses of these things.
Understanding the Good News is only the first step, once internalized it is meaningless unless it be shared.
Once more we are offered God's Peace this time in Luke and in Psalms. The Hebrew word is Shalom which is freighted with far deeper meaning than our simple concept of peace. It encompasses outward and inward freedom from disturbance, well-being in general including health and prosperity, and a sense of right relationship with man and God. All this from a single word.
Our first lesson from Acts quotes events that occurred after the coming of the Holy Spirit--Pentecost. Imbued with the Holy Spirit these illiterate fishermen were empowered to overcome stage freight and fear of the authorities to speak powerfully and charismatically to thousands. Seemingly people from many nations understood them in their own tongue--as has been asserted before in an opposite effect from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. The Holy Ghost or Spirit has also been termed the Comforter for it gives the gift of faith that empowers a sense of Shalom in the believer.
Psalm 4 asserts that those who are faithful to the Lord will lie down in perfect peace. The idea that one should resist worldly injustice but be aware that we are not personally responsible for saving the entire world is made plain.
The Epistle tells us that our lives should reflect the love that was given us and in so doing reflect he from whom it was given.
So we come to Luke and another passage in which the Resurrected Jesus appears to his gathered followers.
How to persuade a group of rather simple literal-minded peasant fishermen that he really is present among them? He invokes the most elemental of human needs and asks for food. He could have gone for a whizz but there were women present.
The important stuff comes next.
Luk 24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
First he has to put their minds at ease so they can be receptive to the message that follows. Opening their minds is an act of the Holy Spirit. It hardly seems plausible that Jesus reviewed the entire Old Testament and his Gospel in one session but having convinced the gathering of his resurrection he freed their minds to move on.
Luk 24:48 You are witnesses of these things.
Understanding the Good News is only the first step, once internalized it is meaningless unless it be shared.
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